Editorial

Spanning the divide

The July 7, 1983 budget by which the Bennett Social Credit government
launched its neo-conservative blitzkrieg in this province still remains as the
measure of a government’s assault on social equality. But even by that standard,
the budget brought down in Victoria last Thursday ranks as one of the worst on
record.

Certainly few budgets before have demonstrated so clearly the government’s
acceptance of the divide between rich and poor and its intention to widen that
divide.

The contrast was stark: while mining companies were given cuts in both
mineral royalties and taxes, the elderly were forced to pay more for long term
care. And all British Columbians have been hit with hikes in medicare premi-
ums, another form of regressive taxation which will strike at pensioners and the
working poor hardest of all.

Imagine: companies such as Cominco and Lornex which have been buoyed
to new profitability by rising metal prices — not to mention the benefits of
discount electrical power from B.C. Hydro — will be paying even less in
provincial taxes as they strip the province’s resources. Yet the elderly, who have
built this province and contributed their lives to it, will pay even more for their
institutional care.

Clearly the government hopes to deepen the gulf as well by its contrived New
Programs fund from which both wage increases for government employees and
improved social services will have to be financed. It is a profoundly cynical ploy
to pit government workers against the recipients of social services, both groups
of which have been robbed by this government.

But if there is a lesson in this budget it is that the labour movement cannot
allow itself to be divided from pensioners or other recipients of social service

_. programs. It cannot allow the government’s mean-spirited strategy to have its

intended effect.

Like the Socreds’ privatization program, the budget underscores the need for
the labour to reaffirm its bond with community groups and to strengthen that
bond with action.

Supporting pensioners in their campaign against long term care increases and
premium hikes would be a good place to start.

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hile Building Trades members in

Vancouver were demonstrating
March 19 outside Hyundai dealerships to
protest the Kerkhoff-Hyundai anti-union
partnership on the Fraser River Skytrain
bridge project, Building Trades workers
and members of the International Long-
shoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union
(ILWU) in California were marching by
the thousands to protest the gang-up
against unionism by U.S. Steel (now
USX) and another South Korean multina-
tional, Pohang Iron and Steel Co..

Some 8,000 members of the ILWU who
normally work Saturdays shut down every
port in California March 19 to take part in
the protest. And the target of the mass
rally — the U.S. Steel-Pohang (USS-
POSCO) joint venture — shows clearly
that the Hyundai-Kerkhoff project is
more that just a passing phenomenon. In
fact, corporations on this continent are
using the strategic position of South
Korean multinationals — which are close-
ly tied to the repressive regime — to take
on traditional areas of union strength.

For more than a year, USS-POSCO has
been carrying out renovation work on an
old U.S. Steel mill in Pittsburg, in North-
ern California, to create a finishing plant
for steel imported from Pohang mills in
South Korea. The project has been anti-
union from the beginning: USS-POSCO
contracted with Alabama-based AMK
International, a notorious non-union con-
tractor, to complete the $50 million reno-
vation. AMK brought in some 600
non-union workers, 80 per cent of them
from outside California, and has been pay-
ing them half the union rate with no health
or pension benefits.

The Contra Costa County Building
Trades Council called the project “the
most awesome single attack against union
construction workers in California his-
tory.”

In addition, although the company has
until now been unloading its imported
Korean steel at ILWU-certified docks in
Richmond, California, that is slated to end

People and Issues

when the renovation work is completed.
According to the president of ILWU
Local 34, Frank Billeci, USS-POSCO
plans to bring steel directly to a port facil-
ity adjacent to the plant — and bypass the
ILWU.

But the project has also united the
labour movement and the community in
opposition. The rally itself was proposed
by the Contra Costa Coalition for Peace
Jobs and Justice, a community coalition
formed to protest racism on the job site,
and labour-community action has figured
prominently in the campaign.

At Saturday’s rally, Democratic presi-
dential candidate Jesse Jackson was the
featured speaker.

* * *

ps Wanna know the latest trade
problem with the United States? Bees.
That’s right — bees. Not steel or soft-
wood lumber or potash but bees.

It seems that the U.S. has its nose out of
joint because the federal government
imposed an embargo on the importation
of U.S. packaged bees and is taking action
against Canadian beekeepers who are try-
ing to get their bees from elsewhere.

Minor though it may sound, honey
production is a significant industry in
Canada. But because of the harsh winters
here, Canadian bees don’t survive year-
round. As a result, Canadian beekeepers
import their queens and workers from the
US. to re-populate their hives each spring,
a practice that’s been carried on for a
number of years.

Last year, however, according to Simon
Fraser University entomologist Dr. Mark
Winston, U.S. bees began showing up with
Asian mite, a disease parasite. To prevent
the spread, the federal Department of

Agriculture imposed a ban on the impor-
tation of bees from the U.S.

Compelled to look elsewhere, Canadi-
ans began importing from Australia and
New Zealand — and that’s when the U.S.
got snippy. According to Winston, the
planes bringing the bees from down under
normally made a re-fuelling stop in
Hawaii. But to make their displeasure
known, the Americans decided to deny the
planes landing rights.

Measure that in perspective for a
moment: while Canada quietly accom-
modates itself-to the U.S. at GATT on the
important fishing industry — putting sev-
eral thousand jobs in jeopardy as a
result — the U.S. won’t even tolerate a
disease-related embargo on bees without
retaliation. It gives the term one-sided a
whole new dimension in meaning.

What makes it even more disquieting is
that this province may be the next target.
Because of the milder winters here, bee-
keepers have been able to develop an over-
wintering bee and have begun to develop a
packaged bee industry here to supply bee-
keepers in the rest of Canada. So far, the
output is not sufficient for the whole coun-
try but it is expected to meet demand some
time within the next few years.

What will the U.S. do then — send in
troops? Or maybe killer bees?

SS SR okies

O nce upon a time — only a few years

ago — a hamburger chain got into
hot water with the viewing public for run-
ning a television advertisement that com-
pared the supposed choices one had when
patronizing its products with the alleged
dull monolith of Soviet society. In the ad,
an overweight woman ata “fashion show”
reappeared in the same garment but bear-
ing different props. Public outrage forced

the company to withdraw the ad.

We were in mind of that when we read
in The Financial Post the comments of a
representative of another capitalist firm:
“Anyone who goes to Moscow right now
sees these gorgeous young women in
smart, modern styles. They change their
minds about Russian clothing pretty
quickly.”

Whatever your opinion of the fashion
world or the importance of looking “gor-
geous,” you might find the remarks by
Canadian businessman Malcolm Robbins
intriguing. Robbins, you see, is the mar-
keting director for Winchester Group Inc.,
a new company formed to market a var-
iety of Soviet made goods in North Amer-
ica.

Started by Bruce Emonson, formerly a
partner in Lada Cars of Canada Ltd., Win-
chester Group envisions marketing some
$20 million worth of products from the
USSR in Canada this year, and more than
$50 million in 1989. Company chair Cha-
rles Loewen also sounds a different note
about Soviet products. Belying the image
of inferior workmanship so often touted
by the capitalist media, Loewen asserts
that the Soviets “have some good pro-
ducts. They’re great engineers, but they
have no concept of selling. That’s where
we come in.”

Winchester Group plans to popularize
items ranging from pianos through gar-
dening tools to diesel engines. Robbins
notes that while perestroika, the process of
vigorous industrial reorganization under-
way in the USSR, may slow things up fora
while, in the long run it should make the
flow of goods to Canada smoother. There
are still a few problems, however.

Robbins says that although the Soviet
Union produces good pianos, “In Russia,
when you sit down and play piano, you
pull up°a dining room chair. In North
America, you have to have matching
benches.” Perhaps, we note, there will be
some work for Canadians on this side of
the Atlantic in making the matching
benches.

4 « Pacific Tribune, March 30, 1988